Official blog of the Greater Sacramento Progressive Alliance, one of the largest and most vibrant progressive activist groups in California with more than 7,000 members. We mobilize Progressives in Sacramento, the surrounding foothill areas, and at Sac State and Folsom Lake College.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Defend Ethnic Studies

Defend Ethnic Studies- Or we will lose them.

At severalCSU
campuses including San Jose, Bakersfield, Long Beach, Sacramento State, and
elsewhere ethnic studies professors are not being replaced, classes are being
reduced and majors could be eliminated.

This letter went to CSU Presidents, the Chancellor, and the
California State Assembly.

Dear California State
University Campus Presidents,

The California Faculty
Association’s Council for Affirmative Action and Board of Directors are writing
to you out of a deep concern for an emerging pattern on a number of campuses
within the CSU—an initiative to drastically cut existing race and ethnic
studies departments or to merge them into larger departments. To our knowledge
these efforts have either already started or are being considered at San Jose
State, CSU Bakersfield, and Long Beach State to name but a few.

While it may seem
tempting to try and find campus “efficiencies” in the name of austerity, there
are larger issues at stake here. We believe that those issues must influence
decisions that have a significant social and political impact.

In this particular
historic moment our nation has come face to face with the fact that life and
death issues of race still plague our country. The outcome of the Zimmerman
trial, the outrage that followed it, the fact that the President of the United
States has spoken frankly about the impact of our failure to grapple with
issues of race, all highlight the important role that universities can play in
creating positive social change.

Indeed, ethnic studies
departments in the CSU are at the forefront in leading students to balanced,
critical, and open discussions of racial and ethnic matters that,
unfortunately, have yet to be resolved in the US, as the Zimmerman trial and
verdict so clearly indicated.

These departments
deliver the university’s interest in diversity as a core principle and
practice, not only by serving majors and minors but also by fulfilling
students’ GE requirements in cultural diversity and critical thinking, among
other areas. Quite frankly, these departments educate students in the cultural
literacies required if they are to be effective leaders capable of addressing
the complicated social and cultural issues that are a part of an increasingly
diverse U.S.

Moreover, ethnic studies
departments supplement academic support services in the CSU by providing
models, advisers, and mentors to students of color and other students.
Additionally, these departments provide vital links to the diverse communities
the CSU serves and from which it draws students, faculty, staff and financial
resources.

Now is not the time to
be shrinking or burying academic curriculum that takes on these critical
issues. Instead we must commit ourselves to helping all of our students wrestle
with the reality of race in America and aspire to create a better society for
all of us.

We cannot allow the
notion of austerity to undermine our responsibility to our students and to the
role we play in creating a more just society. The events of recent months
should be a wakeup call that the small savings that could be realized by
cutting and subsuming these departments would have a huge long-term cost.

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The California State
University is better than this. Given the diversity of our students, we should
take a leadership role in providing the kind of education that will help our
students be part of the solution to our country’s struggle with issues of
equity. We call on each campus president, the Chancellor and Board of Trustees
of this great system to view these programs (and others) not as impediments to
efficiency, but rather as opportunities to help us all live up to the best in
ourselves and in our history.

We ask that you declare
a moratorium on further program changes until an assessment of the programs and
their impacts can be conducted. In the case of the proposed changes in the
Department of Africana Studies at CSU, Long Beach, Chancellor White has
requested a two-year postponement until such an assessment can be conducted. We
agree with the Chancellor’s decision and ask that the same consideration be
extended to these other programs as well. We also ask you to consider holding
campus wide discussions on the issues raised by the Zimmerman verdict so that
we can turn this tragedy into a teachable moment. This is an opportunity for
the greatness of the California State University system to be realized.

We have attached a copy
of a recently passed Assembly Concurrent Resolution supporting the continuation
of Africana studies programs in California’s institutions of higher education.

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Mission Statement

Welcome to the PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE. We are a multi-racial, multi-issue "rainbow coalition" dedicated to social justice, peace and building progressive power. Our key priorities include economic justice; equal rights and equal opportunities for all regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation; international solidarity; humanitarian service; eradicating poverty at home and abroad; environmental protection and sustainable development; and electing progressives to public office and then holding them accountable.

Founded in 2005, we have grown to more than 7,000 members and have emerged as one of the largest and most grassroots activist groups in California. We are proud to serve as a local chapter Our Revolution, the national movement inspired by Bernie Sanders' historic 2016 Presidential Campaign, and as a local affiliate of United for Peace & Justice (UFPJ), a network of several hundred peace and justice groups from all over the world.

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